Programmable Logic Gates Based On Tunable Multistable Mechanisms

Binary logic operations are the building blocks of computing machines. In this paper, we present a new programmable binary logic gate based on programmable multistable mechanisms (PMM), which are multistable structures whose stability behavior depends on modifiable boundary conditions as defined and analyzed in our previous work. The logical state of a PMM is defined by its stability and logical operations are implemented by modifying the stability behavior of the mechanism. Our programmable logic device has two qualitatively different sets of inputs. The first set determines the logic function to be computed. The second set represents the logical inputs. The output is a single logical value, "true" if the mechanism changes state and "false" otherwise. In this way, we are able to mechanically implement a set of binary logical operations. This implementation is validated using an analytical model characterizing the qualitative stability behavior of the mechanism. This was further verified using finite element analysis and experimental demonstration.